(Tuesday, January 15, 2008)

I enjoyed almost everything I read over at Engadget about the Keynote earlier today. However, the thing that made me think Apple was out of their mind was when they announced that they would be charging $20 for five 'new' applications (which include Mail, Maps, Notes, Stocks, and Weather) on the iPod Touch. What an idiotic idea.

1. Apple must have hired someone from Microsoft because this is going to screw them over. Charging money for applications when people can get it for free by jailbreaking it? Please. I own an iPod Touch, and I wasn't planning to Jailbreak it because of the SDK coming in February. If the SDK has a catch like this, then I'm going to jailbreak my iPod in a blink of an eye. You're just steering people away from official Apple programs with this. Jailbreaking looks like the brighter side of the moon compared to this. Charging $20 dollars isn't going to make people buy it. Maybe 5 dollars. Maybe 99 cents. But $20? Way to steal candy from the kids Steve. This is just going to encourage people to jailbreak their iPods so they can get better features. Not only would jailbreaking the iPod give the user a larger variety of applications, it's free. Seriously. Steve Ballmer must have a mask on, and is an undercover Apple employee.

2. It's not fair for the early adopters. Apple said that the newer iPods were coming out with these. Why punish the early adopters? We should be awarded for being so loyal to the company that we would wait in lines for hours just to get one of your new products. You should be giving us flowers, not taking more money from us. Why can't you just give these things out for free like all those iPhone updates? And what about all those people who got their iPods on Christmas or during the New Year? Are you going to penalize them too? It just isn't fair that the early adopters should have to pay for something you can get for free when you buy an iPod now. I have a feeling this is going to end up like the thing with the iPhone price drop. Apple's going to get tons of complaints and end up free giving out these applications for free.3. These aren't the exactly revolutionary applications. You can find all five of these applications in the iPhone already. It's not new. I wouldn't mind paying $20 to get an application which would let me play flash games on the iPod, but this isn't anywhere near that. These applications are things that we can all live without. We can all survive without buying the applications, and I doubt that people would really buy it. Again, it's $20. With that money, I could get Far Cry, Half-Life, Counter-Strike as well as other great games. I could buy twenty songs from the iTunes Store. I could rent over 8 movies from the iTunes store. I could be doing so much more with my money. Why should anyone have to spend money buying something that isn't even going to 'Wow' them?

4. You guys don't even need to charge $20! This technology isn't new. You already have it on the iPhone, and the new iPods are going to come out with it. What's with this $20 price tag you've put on it? This just makes it seem like you're not just thinking up of ways to take money. You don't need to charge us $20, you want to charge us $20. Keep this up, and you'll be losing customers...

5. I've usually liked all your products Apple. But this? Are you guys all giddy on all that booze you drank after hearing about Bill Gate's last day or is there really a Microsoft worker amid you. You know what, I think I'm going to take my twenty dollars and buy used underwear on eBay because that's a better way of spending $20.

I'm going to warn people to hold off your urge to buy these applications (as if there were actually people who would. This is a "just in case" sort of thing). Mix the lack of purchases along with the number of complaints, and within three weeks, all these applications are going to be free. Complain on.